EARLY GORKY WORKS & CATALOGUE BREAK NEW GROUND
“ARSHILE GORKY: THE EARLY YEARS” EXTENDED THROUGH FEB. 2005
Also on View: Jerome Witkin: Site & Insight Part 2
Jack Rutberg Fine Arts
357 North La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90036-2517
Tel (323) 938-5222
Fax (323) 938-0577
E-mail: [email protected]
URL:
PRESS RELEASE
LOS ANGELES, CA – Arshile Gorky (1904-1948) is widely regarded as one of
the most pivotal and significant artists in the development of 20th
century American art. After moving to America from Armenia in 1920, he
quickly became a lightning rod for other artists in the late 1920s and
early 30s, sparking the genesis what was to become the “New York
School”and setting the course of modern art in America.
Now, in a ground-breaking exhibition entitled Arshile Gorky – The Early
Years, and with a 96-page catalogue of the same name, Jack Rutberg Fine
Arts in Los Angeles is showing 66 rare works by Gorky from a private
collection, most previously unexhibited. This exhibition is thought to
be the largest exhibit of Gorky’s works ever presented outside of a
museum, and breaks new ground in addressing Gorky’s earliest stylistic
development.
“Arshile Gorky -The Early Years” offers new references and insights into
this legendary artist during his seminal period as he explored the avant
garde sensibilities of the time. As Melvin P. Lader (widely regarded as
the eminent scholar on the work of Arshile Gorky and author of numerous
books on Gorky and abstract expressionism) notes in this exhibition
catalogue’s text: “As a group, the drawings and paintings mirror Gorky’s
stylistic evolution, up to the point in the late 1930s when he began to
truly digest and synthesize so many of his early influences on the verge
of finding his own unique language and style. Examples of his absorption
of Analytic Cubism, Synthetic Cubism, and aspects of Surrealism are
plentiful among these works . . . and they offer us the rare opportunity
to view a good number . . . from a very fertile period of his artistic
career.”
As Donald Kuspit notes in his 1998 essay Arshile Gorky in the Thirties:
“Gorky began his `self-analysis’ in the drawings and painting of the
thirties . . . already beginning to move beyond [modernist elders] ideas
. . .in the thirties still lifes [which are] surrealized and
abstractified versions of Cezanne’s still lifes.” Indeed, Kuspit says
“we see the beginning of this pure, autonomous, highly fluid,
unpredictable line . . . which begins in nature and ends in pure
expression – as abstract expression.”
That this exhibition was even possible is due to the long-standing
friendship between Gorky and the Swiss-born American artist Hans
Burkhardt (1904-1994), who shared a studio with Gorky in New York for
many years, and acquired a formidable collection of Gorky’s early works.
As Lader observes: “Among them were Gorky’s small Cezannean landscape
Staten Island and an equally significant early Self Portrait, both of
which are key pieces in understanding Gorky’s early absorption of modern
influences” and the “Burkhardt collection Gorky drawings provides a
rather unique opportunity to see the artist’s art and ideas evolve
within an important period of his artistic transformation. Drawings, by
their very nature, register the artist’s first impulses in creating a
work. As such, they can often be of enormous value in understanding how
an artist thinks and in tracing the various stages through which his art
has progressed.”
“Arshile Gorky: The Early Years” is currently exhibited at Jack Rutberg
Fine Arts gallery, 357 North La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, through
February, 2005.
The exhibition is accompanied by a 96-page text with 103 color
illustrations; essay by Dr. Lader, who co-curated the recent major
retrospective of Gorky drawings at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York
and the Menil Collection in Houston.
Gallery hours are Tuesday – Friday from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm and
Saturdays from 10:00 to 5:00 pm or by appointment.
A portfolio sampling of Arshile Gorky’s exhibition may be viewed at the
gallery’s Web site,

MaineToday.com
1/31/05
AT THE MOVIES
By Marty Meltz
Eastwood`s `Baby` a diamond in the ring
Grizzled Clint Eastwood, virtuoso of plots grim and grisly, scores again
with a flawless study of a female boxing career headed for tragedy. No
“Rocky” this, it’s a tale colored in foreboding tones, both in narrative and
photography, detailing in ominous progression a relationship at first
distant, then melding into a deeply heartfelt surrogate father-daughter
bond.
The story, from a short story by F.X. Toole (pseudonym for actual fight
manager, corner man and “cut-man” Jerry Boyd), is of Frankie Dunn
(Eastwood), owner of a decaying but friendly boxing gym in a low-income
neighborhood. Guilt-laden because of some undefined estrangement with his
daughter, his letters to her have always been returned unopened. Proudly
Irish, he searches for solace in readings of Gaelic prose and Yeats poetry.
A devout church-goer, his endless questions about Catholicism irk his priest
who wishes he would miss a few Masses and just get lost.
Frank has been a good trainer in his past, but fate has always eluded him in
taking his boxers to contender level. One badly beaten failure had been now
best-pal (and the film’s narrator) Eddie “Scrap Iron” Dupris (Morgan
Freeman), who lost sight in one eye. Bitter disappointment now strikes again
as Frank’s highly promising young protege (Mike Colter) deserts him for a
savvy big-time manager.
But his life will change dramatically when 32-year-old Maggie Fitzgerald
(Hilary Swank), refugee daughter of a poor upbringing, seeking to find her
personal worth through boxing, comes to Frank’s gym for bag punching.
Undaunted by his stonewalling (“I don’t take on girl boxers”), enduring her
waitressing job and living on a pittance, Maggie, with encouragement from
Scrap, finally is making headway. She’s getting to Frank. And boxing is her
single life’s purpose.
Frank, feeling the fatherlike bond that is developing, is impressed with her
resolve, especially when she gets to decking one opponent after another. Her
feet and hands are amazingly fast; her attentiveness to learning is
productive at every level. She is headed for welterweight contender status
and the formidable champion awaits her. And so does an ultimately harsh
tragedy.
No Hollywood rise to stardom over insurmountable obstacles here, no wish
fulfillment cliches, this is, rather, about a “father” and a
40-years-younger “daughter” who have no one and nothing else in life but
each other. If either fails, the other will fail also to the same degree. As
director, Eastwood, with enormous gravity, isolates the intimate details of
confrontations with the preciousness of one’s short time on earth. In the
end, the two will be one, entwined in each other’s very essence, each having
completed the other perfectly. No sex, no romance. Just a spiritual triumph
at a cosmic level.
Cheadle, ‘Rwanda’ Unforgettable
In the darkest annals of the human spirit, the 20th century displayed its
ugliest politics of indifference in the special category of genocide. While
the Holocaust got its day in court and in retribution, 17 million Russian
civilians died under Stalin’s responsibility, ignored by the world. The
Chinese Cultural Revolution saw 30 million killed, ignored by the world. In
1919 a million Armenians were killed by the Turks, no punishment exacted.
The most heartrending of all, in terms of world indifference were the 1
million killed by machetes and bullets in Rwanda in April of 1994. “Hotel
Rwanda” dramatizes the saga of the willful apathy of the United Nations as
it manifested in the true story of a small hero of the slaughter.
It all begins when Rwandan President Habyarimana is killed when his plane is
shot down near Kigali Airport by Hutu extremists, this because he had been
about to implement the Arusha Peace Accords to settle the Hutu-Tutsi
conflict. Controlling the media and loudspeakers, the Hutus blame the Tutsis
and the mass killings begin that night, to continue for 100 days. The Hutus
(not mentioned in the film) hate the Tutsis for their collaboration with the
former Belgian colonialists’ oppression of them.
The story is of Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle), the amiable, peaceful Hutu
manager of the ritzy Hotel Des Milles Collines in Kigali, who gathers in
some 1,200 Tutsi relatives, friends and strangers to hide them from the
massacre. He deletes names from the registry, bribes military officials with
cash and beer, and finally exhausts every ruse imaginable to sidetrack the
army of marauding machete-wielding Hutu fanatics.
A few U.N. camps offer shelter to civilians, but most of the U.N.
peacekeeping forces are obliged, by their explicit “monitoring” mandate, not
to intervene. Belgium and France send troops to rescue their own, American
civilians are airlifted. The U.N. Security Council votes unanimously to
withdraw almost all of the U.N. troops, cutting the number from 2,500 to
270.
At the hotel, Rusesabagina, his wife and children cringing in anticipation,
beseeches Col. Oliver (Nick Nolte), head of the U.N. contingent, to block
the oncoming Hutu vultures.
Don Cheadle, in this his most dimensional role, delivers a riveting mix of
dynamic emotions with fast-changing degrees of urgency as Rusesabagina
scrambles in dodges and delaying tactics, all the while dealing with his own
integrity as the rapacious Hutu military officers demand more and more
tribute amid their cold-blooded murdering.
A skilled portrayal of the caprice of the human kill motive at its primal
levels, the vagaries of greed and the whims of armed power in the hands of
uncivilized men, the film is also a stark commentary on the conveniences of
world politics when it comes to regards for humanity. The little people are
the pawns of the powerful, used, or unused and stored away for future use.
The terror of women and children is blood-curdling, the final assault
spellbinding. But out of the abominations of Rwanda comes unforgettable
stuff.
Marty Meltz has been reviewing movies for the Portland Newspapers for 27
years. His reviews appear weekly in the Telegram and on Thursdays in the
Press Herald.

PRESS RELEASE
January 31, 2005
Embassy of the Republic of Armenia
2225 R Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20008
Tel: 202-319-1976, x. 348; Fax: 202-319-2982
Email: [email protected]; Web:
Second Pan Armenian Film Festival to be held in Armenia on July 12-17, 2005
Second Yerevan International Film Festival “Golden Apricot” will be held in
Yerevan on July 12-17, 2005, and the organizing committee is inviting
directors and their films from around the world, borne of different cultures
and a variety of aesthetics to convene in Yerevan, on the crossroads of
yesterday’s and today’s cultures. The objective of the festival is to
promote cross-cultural understanding, and the main theme will be Crossroads.
The Festival organizers would like to invite entries incorporating the
‘Crossroads’ theme, depicting human experience: the daily lives of ordinary
people, their troubles and joys, their hopes and heartbreaks. There are two
categories for the festival competition: full-length feature films and
documentaries (full length and short). One Grand Prix (Golden Apricot) and
one Special Mention will be presented in each category. Special Award will
be presented for significant contribution into the world cinema.
The festival will have a special competitive section for feature, animation
and documentary films made by filmmakers of Armenian decent. Two Awards will
be presented for the films included in this section. During the Second
Yerevan International Film Festival “Golden Apricot,” the organizing
committee will keep the “Yerevan Premiers” and “Retrospective” sections. The
former will include the best art-house films taken in the latest period, and
the latter will present films made by famous film directors.
The application submission deadline is 31 March 2005. Accepted screening
formats are:
film (35 mm) and video (DV, DVCAM, Beta-SP/PAL). The organizing committee
will not screen films from BETA NTSC or DigiBeta. Accepted preview formats
are VHS (PAL or NTSC). The date of production has to be after July 1, 2003.
The deadline for applications is March 31, 2005. For detailed inquiries and
application forms, please contact Susanna Harutyunyan and Mikayel
Stamboltsyan of the Golden Apricot International Film Festival, Byron
Street, #5, Yerevan, 375009, Armenia, Tel. (+374-1) 564484, email:
[email protected], web:

Armenian Assembly of America
122 C Street, NW, Suite 350
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202-393-3434
Fax: 202-638-4904
Email: [email protected]
Web:
PRESS RELEASE
January 31, 2005
CONTACT: Christine Kojoian
Email: [email protected]
NEAR EAST FOUNDATION TO PARTICIPATE IN GENOCIDE TRIBUTE
Cyprus, Ethiopia, Syria, Uruguay to Attend
Washington, DC – The Armenian Assembly, along with the Armenian
General Benevolent Union and the Western Diocese of the Armenian
Church, announced today that the President of the Near East Foundation
and the consul generals from Cyprus, Syria, Ethiopia and Uruguay will
be among those honored by the Armenian community for their efforts in
supporting the survivors of the Armenian Genocide.
The “International Relief, Refuge, and Recognition Tribute” will take
place on February 24 at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles,
California. The event will also recognize those nations, such as
Cyprus and Uruguay, which have officially acknowledged the Armenian
Genocide and serve as a prelude to a series of local, national and
international events that will commemorate and raise awareness of the
90th anniversary of the Genocide.

“The governments of these four countries have long-standing
relationships with Armenia and its people, with all serving as a safe
haven for Armenians fleeing the genocide,” said Western Office
Chairman Richard Mushegain. “Similarly, the Near East Relief is
credited with saving hundreds of thousands of Armenians and making
possible productive futures for more than 130,000 orphans.”
>From 1919 until 1930, New York-based Near East Relief (now known as
the Near East Foundation) administered $117,000,000 to those in
need. Very early in the relief effort, attention focused on helping
rescued orphans to become self-supporting and contributing members of
the communities that had absorbed them.
Armenian survivors also turned to Syria, by far the largest recipient
of refugees of any Middle Eastern country. Cyprus, Ethiopia and
Uruguay also opened their doors and are home to well-established
Armenian communities.
The event planning committee includes Elizabeth Agbabian, Joan
Aghajanian-Quinn, Nancy Arabian, Lily Ring Balian, Flora Dunaians,
Audrey Gregor, Hermine Janoyan, Stella Moloyan, Cindy Norian, Krikor
Patatian and Savey Tufenkian.
For more information on this event, please contact Armenian Assembly
Western Office Deputy Director Nicole Shahenian at (310) 360-0091 or
via email at [email protected].
The Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based
nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness
of Armenian issues. It is a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt membership
organization.
###
NR#2005-010
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESS RELEASE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of Australia & New Zealand
10 Macquarie Street
Chatswood NSW 2067
AUSTRALIA
Contact: Laura Artinian
Tel: (02) 9419-8056
Fax: (02) 9904-8446
Email: [email protected]
31 January 2005
DIRAMAYR ALICE BALIOZIAN ENTERS ETERNAL REST
Sydney, Australia – Today, the Armenian community of Australia solemnly
farewelled Diramayr Alice Baliozian, the beloved mother of His Eminence
Archbishop Aghan Baliozian, Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of
Australia & New Zealand, who passed away on Friday, 28 January, 2005 at age
82 years.
Present at the funeral service were a number of dignitaries, government
officials and representatives, church leaders, clergy, representatives of
Armenian organisations, Diocesan and Church Councillors and the community at
large. During the service, messages of condolence were read from His
Holiness Karekin II Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians and
His Beatitude Archbishop Torkom Manoogian Patriarch of Jerusalem.
The passing of Diramayr Alice brings great sadness not only to her children,
grandchildren and extended family but to the Armenian community of Sydney
who endeared Diramayr as their own mother. Since her arrival to Australia
in 1976, Diramayr was a pillar of church community life bringing her service
when and where it was needed. She was a woman of small stature and soft
demeanour, yet her simple, wondrous smile communicated more than a mouthful
of eloquent words and conveyed genuine warmth and care. She was indeed a
quiet achiever.

Diramayr was a woman of conviction, deep faith and spirituality, values that
she instilled in her children by example. She will always be remembered for
the quiet force that she was for her immediate family and church family.
In his eulogy this afternoon, Archbishop Aghan conveyed his deep sadness for
the loss of his beloved mother but emphasised that the sadness was also
measured against a deep joy in the knowledge that Diramayr Alice truly
walked her life with God. With the will of God and His promise of eternal
life only, can we take comfort in today’s loss.

OSCE mission visits occupied Azeri district, meets residents – Armenian
report
Mediamax news agency
31 Jan 05
YEREVAN
The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen and members of the OSCE fact-finding
mission today visited the centre and several villages of Kalbacar
which is controlled by the defence army of the Nagornyy Karabakh
Republic.
A special Mediamax correspondent reports that the members of the
mission are holding meetings with the district residents and asking
them to fill in questionnaires to establish where they were settled
before.
The co-chairmen and the OSCE fact-finding mission are planning to
visit Fuzuli and Cabrayil Districts. The visit of the OSCE mission [to
all seven occupied districts of Azerbaijan] is expected to last from
seven to 10 days.

NOVOSTI
2005-01-31 15:15 * RUSSIA * TRANSPORT * CORRIDOR * CONSTRUCTION * END *
RUSSIA COMPLETES NORTH-SOUTH TRANSPORT CORRIDOR
MOSCOW (RIA Novosti economic commentator Vasily Zubkov) – The last
month has seen two important events in the implementation of the North-South
International Transport Corridor project. First, Russian engineers opened a
700-meter railroad bridge over the Buzan river. Second, the Uljanik shipyard
at the Croatian seaport of Pula launched the first of four ferries capable
of carrying 52 train cars across the Caspian Sea. After the finishing
touches are added, it will be handed over to a Russian customer,
Makhachkalinsky Morskoi Port, by early summer. Each vessel comes with a $20
million price tag and the second one should be ready by August.
Taking into account that a project to construct a 49-kilometer railway
line toward the seaport of Olya was completed late last year in several
months, instead of the scheduled two years, Russia can be considered to have
finished its part of the North-South International Transport Corridor.
The new facilities are extremely important for Russia, which Prime
Minister Mikhail Fradkov’s attendance at the opening ceremony of the
Yandyki-Olya railway line in Astrakhan highlighted. Another high-ranking
official, Vyacheslav Ruksha, the head of the Russian Federal Agency for
Maritime and River Transport, was in Croatia for the ferry launch.
Linking the technological chain will soon directly affect performance
indicators, such as freight turnover, passenger miles, loading and unloading
rates, and accelerated cargo delivery. This will save foreign shippers’ time
and money. The North-South Corridor will cut shipping time from Northern
Europe to India and Iran from 37 to 13-15 days.
The project was devised to link India and Iran with Russia and
northern Europe through the Caspian Sea. And the figures suggest that it is
worth it. Indeed, experts estimate current Europe-Asia shipping yield totals
$140 billion a year. Iran alone claims it is going to gain extra $5-10
billion from cargo transit a year. Moscow is entitled tothink it will earn
just as much.
The consortium implementing this project, which was coordinated and
approved in the autumn of 2000, includes 10 countries: Russia, Iran, Iraq,
Oman, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Syria. Other
states, particularly the United Arab Emirates, have also displayed an
interest.
According to the Transport Ministry, Russia carried some 5 million
metric tons of bulk cargoes worth over $5 billion through the North-South
corridor in 2003. Although last year’s final results still have not been
calculated, preliminary estimates put cargo traffic growth at 15-20%. In two
to three years, the annual volume of freight traffic through the corridor is
expected to reach 15 million metric tons. The potential volume of transit
container cargoes is well over 20 million metric tons, the All-Russian
Market Research Institute reports. A container terminal with capacity of up
to a million TEUs a year is being built in the port of Olya to ensure that
these targets are hit.
Work on the project has accelerated since fierce rivalry emerged in
the Caspian region for cargo transit bypassing the Suez Canal. The rivals
are the TRASEKA International Transport Corridor (Europe-Caucasus-Asia), the
Trans-Kazakhstan and Trans-Asian railways. Moreover, the Caspian commercial
fleets of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are growing increasingly powerful. The
latter adopted a program to create a national commercial fleet last year.
Competition is forcing the founders of the North-South Corridor to
take a more flexible approach toward determining a strategy of further
development. Russian experts believe it is reasonable to use a transport
model combining the trans-Caspian ferry sea route and the
Iran-Azerbaijan-Russia railway route, along the Western coast of the Caspian
Sea. The huge resources of Russia’s river fleet and river-sea navigation
vessels could be used along the corridor to carry cargoes through the
Volga-Don and Belomor-Baltic canals to northern and southern Europe.
The Russian Railways joint-stock company is in talks with Iran and
Azerbaijan on reviving railway communication with Iran, which was broken off
some time ago. The advantages of carrying some of the cargo across land
route are evident. Freight does not need to be reloaded, while it is
transported faster and is not dependent on the weather.
The North-South International Transport Corridor is beginning to play
an increasingly significant role in international traffic between Europe and
Asia. The sooner difficulties are settled between Russian railway
functionaries and shipowners, and generally between Russian and Iranian
transport officials (delays in Iran’s returning empty containers), the more
attractive the corridor will be.
Even greater support for the project from the two countries’
authorities would help raise the North-South Corridor’s profile still
further.

NKR PRESIDENT PROPOSES OSCE MISSION TO VISIT ALSO REGIONS OCCUPIED BY
AZERBAIJAN
YEREVAN, JANUARY 31. ARMINFO. NKR President Arkady Ghoukassyan met
Head of the OSCE monitoring group Emili Haber (Germany) as well as
OSCE Minsk Group co- chairmen Yuri Merzlyakov, Steven Mann and berard
Fassier, Sunday evening.
The NKR Presidential Head Information Office told ARMINFO that Arkady
Ghoukassyan pointed out the importance of OSCE’s initiative to visit
the territories under control of Karabakh. He said that earlier
official Stepanakert had repeatedly applied to the MG co-chairmen for
organization of such a monitoring to get informed of the real
situation in these territories to rule out any insinuations by
Azerbaijan in this connection. As regards the situation in the
territories subject to monitoring, which are the security zone of
Nagorny Karabakh, the NKR president said that the local authorities
had no state policy on their settlement. He said that the residents of
those territories are mainly Armenians forcefully expelled from
Azerbaijan. The country just creates conditions for normal residence
of those people in the territories and establishes relevant octnrol
there.
Expressing readiness of NKR leadership to render any assistance to the
mission’s work, President Ghoukassyan expressed hope that the report
to be prepared after the monitoring would contribute to creation of a
constructive atmosphere around the peaceful resolution of the Karabakh
conflict. The president proposed OSCE mission to visit the territories
of Nagorny Karabakh under occupation of the Azerbaijani army to get
more complete picture of the situation in the conflict zone.
In her turn, E.Haber expressed gratitude to the Karabakh leadership
for creation of necessary conditions for the mission’s work. She said
that the mission’s activity would take 10 days, adding that the work
was of technical nature and did not pursue of goal of giving a
political assessment of the situation. Participating in the meeting
was also Personal Representative of OSCE Chairman- in-Office
Ambassador Andrjey Kasprzyk.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA WILL SUPPLY CIGARETTES TO IRAQ
YEREVAN, JANUARY 31. ARMINFO. Armenian producers have agreed on supply
on cigarettes to Iraq in the current year.
Talking to ARMINFO, President of the Armenian LTD International Masis
Tabak Michael Vardanyan says that an oral agreement on this was
reached last year when Iraqi specialists visited Armenia. Supply of
five containers of cigarettes monthly is in question, which is a
rather big lot, he says. For example, Vardanyan says that 45
containers of cigarettes of native and foreign producers are monthly
sold in the country. At present, Armenian producers expected Iraqi
orders. The president of the company says that cigarettes from Armenia
will be supplied in spite of the fact that a joint production of
cigarettes with participation of the largest Armenian producer Grand
Tobacco was established in Iran last year.
It should be noted that there are two big producers of cigarettes in
Armenia, Grand Tobacco and International Masis Tabak. Three billion
cigarettes are daily sold in the country. The share of local
production is half of the market.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RUSSIA’S FM’S FEB 1 VISIT TO BAKU CAUSES CONTROVERSIAL RESPONSE IN
AZERBAIJAN
MOSCOW, JANUARY 31. ARMINFO. Russia’s FM Sergey Lavrov is being
suspected of planning to involve Azerbaijan in some political and
economic jobbery.
According to Sohbet Mamedov and Elhan Shahinoglu, the Azeri analysts
of Nezavisimaya Gazeta (Moscow), Lavrov’s Feb 1 visit to Baku has
caused much clamor in Azerbaijan. The local media are reporting that
Lavrov will insist on Azerbaijan’s accession into Collective Security
Treaty Organization. In response the Azeri national patriots are
accusing their authorities of treason and are claiming that
Azerbaijan’s sovereignty is at risk. But many doubt this.
Particularly politologist Zardust Alizade says that Lavrov is
experienced enough to touch on a ticklish subject like CSTO membership
especially as CSTO member is Armenia.
Meanwhile the Azeri FM says that the key goal of Lavrov’s visit is to
prepare for the mid Feb Moscow meeting of Ilham Aliev and Vladimir
Putin. With his Azeri counterpart Elmar Mamedyarov Lavrov is to
discuss economic, Caspian status and Caspian Summit issues with a
special emphasis on joint anti-terror activities.
Of course the Karabakh problem is still a serious obstacle to the
successful development of Azeri-Russian relations. In Moscow Russia
will be asked to stop being a neutral mediator and to actively
influence its strategical ally Armenia. Lavrov may face complaints
concerning the recent pro-Armenian statements by OSCE Minsk Group
Russian Co-Chair Yuri Merzlyakov who said that Nagorny Karabakh is
also a party to the conflict.
One more reason for the public concern in Azerbaijan might be Lavrov’s
Armenian roots.
Some Azeri experts say that unless Lavrov succeeds to agree with the
Azeri authorities on the key issues Russia may lose its influence on
Azerbaijan leaving the key roles in the region to the US and the
EU. But if Moscow makes certain concessions Baku will continue
respecting its interests in Azerbaijan and may intensify economic
relations including between Russian and Azeri regions.
It was for this reason probably that Russia has proclaimed 2005 the
year of Azerbaijan in Russia and invited Pres.Aliev to Moscow.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress